Erebia sudetica, INALPINA

Habel, J., Ivinskis, P. & Schmitt, T., 2010, On The Limit Of Altitudinal Range Shifts - Population Genetics Of Relict Butterfly Populations, Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 56 (4), pp. 383-393 : 389

EXAMPLES: EREBIA SUDETICA INALPINA ,

COENONYMPHA DARWINIANA, C. MACROMMA

The genetic diversity of mid-altitude endemics of the Alps

In contrast to the low-altitude mountains of Central Europe, mid-altitude species should not be dramatically threatened by climate warming in the Alps as uphill habitat shifts are well possible in Europe’s highest mountain system. However, the strongly localised endemic taxa in this group differ in that they express strongly different levels of genetic diversity. Thus, the ringlet E. sudetica inalpina has low genetic diversity ( HAUBRICH & SCHMITT 2007), but the genetic situation is considerably different for the two endemics C. darwiniana and C. macromma . The populations of these two species show remarkable genetic diversity ( SCHMITT & BESOLD 2010), which is even higher than in the two other representatives of this species complex, the high altitude C. gardetta ( SCHMITT & BESOLD 2010) and the lowland taxon C. arcania ( BESOLD et al. 2008 a) ; indeed, the populations even reach the extremely high genetic diversities of the very common and fairly widespread congeneric C. pamphilus ( BESOLD et al. 2008 b) .